Tassal

Operations in Queensland are focused on farming prawns. NSW operations also support the processing and distribution of seafood products other than salmon.

• Northern Prawn Fishery - Xanadu
• Mission Beach, Queensland - Prawn farm, hatchery & processing facility
• Proserpine, Queensland - Prawn farm, hatchery & processing facility
• Exmoor Station, Queensland - Aquaculture Development Area
• Yamba, New South Wales - Prawn farm & processing facility
• Lidcombe, New South Wales - Seafood processing facility

Tassal has five marine farming zones, where the standard pen has a volume of 11,600 cubic meters and holds enough salmon to produce 120 tonnes once harvested. Salmon are kept in these large sea cages between 12 and 18 months and continue to grow until they are ready to be harvested at an average weight of 5.0 kg live weight.

• Eastern Zone, Okehampton Bay & Port Arthur
• Channel Zone, D'Entrecasteaux Channel
• Southern Zone, Dover & Huon River
• Western Zone, Macquarie Harbour
• Storm Bay Zone, Nubeena & West of Wedge

Tassal operates two hatcheries, with a third to be developed, it also has access to the selective breeding program operated by SALTAS on behalf of the Salmon industry in Tasmania.

Combined, they have the capacity to produce ten million smolt a year. These smolt come from broodstock from a Tasmanian-based industry selective breeding program. The Rookwood Road Hatchery and Nursery underwent an expansion in April 2016 to make it the biggest land-based salmon nursery in Australia with the capacity to produce approximately 8 million smolt per year. After 8–12 months at Rookwood Nursery, the smolt are transferred to sea.[8]

• Rookwood I & II Ranelagh
• Russell Falls & Karanja Mount Field
• SALTAS (industry hatchery) Wayatinah
• HRAS (future development), Hamilton

Tassal has four processing facilities, including a smokehouse, one retail outlet and a mobile salmon truck.[9][10]

• Huonville, Salmon processing
• Margate, Salmon processing
• Dover, Salmon processing
• Triabunna, Rendering facility

The investigative television program Four Corners aired an episode in October 2016 that focused on the Tasmanian Salmon aquaculture industry, with issues covered including environmental impact, health and sustainability practices of companies.</ref> [24]

On 26 April 2021, Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan published the controversial non-fiction book Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry, which claimed to expose a range of unethical practices in the Tasmanian salmon industry.[25]

During November 2016, non-compliances were detected at leases in Macquarie Harbour, where three salmon companies farm. Tassal alerted the EPA to issues and subsequently destocked its Franklin lease in the Harbour. The lease was fallowed for 18 months, during which time Aquaculture Stewardship Council was not pursued for the lease as there were no fish in it.[26]

In May 2017, the ASC found Tassal had failed to comply with 19 requirements for ASC Certification.[27]

In May 2018, Tassal established a joint venture with Petuna to farm in Macquarie Harbour. The goal was to improve stocking strategies, bio-security and allow longer fallowing periods to protect the environment.[28]

Concerns have been raised by Tasmanian community groups, such as the organization Marine Protection Tasmania, over the use of antibiotics by the company, particularly regarding the fact that there is a legally required 1000 degree day antibiotic withdrawal period before a farm salmon is slaughtered, but "wild" salmon that is fished by the public may still be contaminated with antibiotic residue. A monitoring report by the Environment Protection Authority Tasmania (EPA) that was published in July 2022 found that after heavy antibiotic use in response to a vibrio outbreak in Tassal's Sheppards lease in January of that year, flathead salmon caught 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) away from the boundary of Tassal's lease contained levels of antibiotics above the reportable threshold. Additionally, the World Health Organization has warned that antibiotics misuse contributes to antibiotic-resistant organisms developing, and that vaccination ought be used to prevent misuse. Tassal attempted to prevent the 2022 report, as well as another antibiotic residue monitoring report from September 2020, from being released to the public by the EPA.[29]

In 2017 Tassal confirmed its use of the antibiotic oxytetracycline,[30] which was not used in humans in 2018 in Australia, and was rated as low importance by the Australian Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance.[31]

Antibiotic use is audited annually by the ASC, whose standards forbid the use of antibiotics from the World Health Organization list of Critically Important Antimicrobials for Human Medicine.[32]

Usage as reported by Tassal, for each annual reporting period,[33][34] and as reported by the EPA for each year in kilograms per year:[29]